Domestic productsYunnan coffeehas become one of the topics we often discuss, especially aboutYunnan coffee qualityHow does it taste?
If you are not familiar with Yunnan coffee, you might as well try the Front Street Yunnan arabica coffee beans that best represent the flavor of the Yunnan production area.It smells very nutty, with herbs, chocolate, and caramel in the mouth, and the aftertaste is a touch of fruit acid. The overall flavor can give us a basic understanding of Yunnan coffee.
Yunnan arabica coffeeWhere to plant?
The so-called small-grained coffee is to compare with the medium-grained Robusta coffee produced in Hainan, my country. To put it bluntly, it belongs to the Arabica variety like many coffee producing areas. CurrentlyYunnan coffeeMost of what is grown is the Catim variety.
Coffee is a crop that likes a warm environment and is heat-tolerant but not cold-tolerant. Sufficient light is more conducive to its growth. The most suitable planting temperature is 16 degrees Celsius to 21 degrees Celsius. With the equator as the center, it covers 25° north latitude to 25° south latitude to form the "World's Golden Coffee Cultivation Belt". Our country's Yunnan happens to be on this golden belt. Most areas in Yunnan are 1,000 to 2,000 meters above sea level. The slopes have fertile soil, sufficient sunshine, abundant rainfall, and a large temperature difference between day and night. These are all favorable conditions for growing coffee trees.
Coffee cultivation in Yunnan is mainly distributed in the southwestern part of the province, including the four major producing areas of Baoshan, Dehong, Pu'er and Lincang. The three Yunnan coffee beans on the Front Street Bean List come from Baoshan and Lincang respectively.
The history of coffee cultivation in Baoshan began in the mid-1950s, when it was introduced by the patriotic overseas Chinese Mr. Liang Jinshan. The frost-free warm climate throughout the year is very suitable for the growth of arabica coffee. Especially in the unique dry hot valley climate in Lujiangba area, the temperature difference is not large throughout the year, but the temperature difference between day and night is large, which creates the unique sweetness of Baoshan arabica coffee. Coupled with the reasonably low rainfall, it brings great advantages to coffee fruit production.
What processing method is used for Yunnan coffee beans?
In the past two years, many Yunnan coffee beans on the market use special processing methods to add flavor to the coffee beans and make the aroma stronger. Some friends think this is the taste of Yunnan coffee. In fact, most Yunnan coffee farmers have difficult conditions and do not have expensive processing equipment. Therefore, the vast majority of Yunnan coffee beans can only be processed using natural methods, that is, washing and sun-drying.
Washing step: Pour the coffee cherries into the sink, and use the buoyancy of the water to remove impurities, unripe berries, etc. mixed in them. First, use a peeler to remove the outer peel and most of the pulp, then place the coffee beans in a clean water tank for fermentation. The fermentation of the pectin layer produces acidic substances to separate the pectin layer, and then wash with clean water to remove the remaining pectin to obtain green beans with endocarp (shelled beans). Finally, the green coffee beans are dried (or machine-dried) according to weather conditions to reduce the moisture content to about 12%, and then a shelling machine is used to remove the endocarp to obtain the inner coffee beans.
Front Street believes that if you want to understand Yunnan coffee, you should start with the flavor of the coffee itself, rather than covering up the original taste through novel processing methods. Therefore, several types of coffee beans on the Front Street Bean List adopt the traditional washing and sun-drying methods. The arabica coffee beans that represent Yunnan are washed with water to present the unique coffee flavor of the production area. Front Street also has a popular coffee bean called "Front Street 2013". I believe you have guessed from the name that it is an exclusive product of Front Street Beans. Produced in Front Street's own manor in Lincang, Yunnan, it is selected from the elegant Typica variety and uses natural sun-drying methods to make the coffee sweeter.
Yunnan coffee beans grown on Front Street
In the process of exploring coffee knowledge in the early years, Front Street came up with the idea of growing his own coffee, so in 2013, he went to Lincang, Yunnan to start planting coffee trees. Site selection, seed selection, seedling raising, planting, harvesting, processing, and baking are all handled by colleagues from Front Street, and they have also summarized a lot of experience and knowledge related to varieties, altitudes, and processing methods.
Lincang, Yunnan Province is affected by the warm and humid air currents of the Indian Ocean and the southwest monsoon. The four seasons are not obvious, but the dry and rainy seasons are distinct, with more rain, long sunshine hours, and short frost periods. Some areas are frost-free all year round, and the three-dimensional climate is obvious, which is very suitable for Arabica coffee cultivation. Front Street specially selected the most original iron pickup truck. Typica has an elegant and pure flavor, but it is also famous for its low yield and poor resistance. Therefore, Front Street has also put a lot of effort into its planting and management. After 5 to 6 years of cultivation, the first batch of fruits was finally harvested in Front Street in 2020 and produced using a sun-dried process, also named "Front Street 2013".
Whenever November arrives, the coffee cherries grown on Front Street mature one after another. Front Street arranges workers to pick the red coffee cherries one by one and lay the fresh coffee cherries flat in the sun to dry naturally. Until the coffee beans are dehydrated to purple-red color and reach the target moisture content, they are sent to shelling and roasting.
What does Front Street Yunnan coffee taste like?
Referring to the corresponding flavor tonality of Yunnan coffee, Front Street believes that Yunnan coffee has a balanced neutral flavor, that is, it has acidity and mellow bitterness, so it adopts medium roasting. In this way, Front Street 2013 Typica can taste the aroma of plums, dried fruits, chocolate, nuts, and black tea. The various flavors are properly blended and the sweetness is very obvious.
FrontStreet Coffee hand brewing parameters:
Filter bowl: hario v60
Powder amount: 15g
Water temperature: 90 degrees Celsius
Grinding degree: No. 20 screen pass rate 75%
Gouache ratio: 1:15
Three-stage water injection: Wet the powder bed with twice the amount of coffee powder to form a drum and steam it for 30 seconds. Then inject water in a small circle from the inside to the outside until it reaches 125g. When the powder bed drops to half of the filter cup, continue to inject the same thin water flow into the third section to 225g until all the coffee liquid has been filtered and take out the filter cup, which takes about 2 minutes.
Flavor performance of Front Street 2013 coffee beans: The dry aroma has a light caramel and nutty aroma. It tastes like the main tone of chocolate, with brown sugar sweetness and slight fruit acidity, and the aftertaste has a hint of black tea. The overall flavor level is relatively rich.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
